What Pep’s success can teach us about Uhuru’s second term

Kenyans are football-mad. It is part of our everyday reality. When our team wins, we are ecstatic. When our team loses, we are inconsolable.

Football is more than a sport, it is a way of life.

It brings out the worst in us, it brings out the best in us.

The values of football — from teamwork to competitiveness, from passion to pride — these guide us in our daily lives.

COACHES

While we support our local leagues, and the crucial development of Kenyan sports, for many of us, the English Premier League is the very pinnacle of football.

However, it is not just the players who leave us in awe with their skill and abilities.

Super coaches today have become the stars of the show.

And perhaps none more than the bearded Spaniard genius Pep Guardiola.

MANCHESTER CITY

Having experienced dazzling success in Spain with Barcelona, and then in Germany with Bayern Munich, the sporting world buzzed with excitement when Guardiola took over at the helm at Manchester City.

With Conte at Chelsea, and Pep’s arch-rival Mourinho at neighbour’s Manchester United, we all expected the best from the Great Pep.

So last year, many of us were bemused as to why Manchester City were good, but they were not great, they were not exceptional.

Chelsea ran away with the league title. City did not play as a team. They did not gel. They did not bond.

VISION

De Bruyne was good, but he was not great. Sterling performed much like his currency’s namesake.

There were problems in the defence, and a lack of communication in the middle.

Pep’s magical touch seemed to have dissipated somewhere on his way over from Munich.

Yet second time around, it is looking very very different.

Manchester City are playing with resilience, with flair, and most importantly, with a clear and defined unity.

It took Pep time, but his leadership is finally trickling down.

UHURU

He is delivering with the most superb results.

In fact, he has been so successful that this is the greatest start to an English Premier League season ever.

Back home in Kenya, President Uhuru Kenyatta now faces many of the same challenges in his second term.

His leadership qualities are indisputable.

Faced with a multitribal team of Kenya, his innovative and youthful leadership produced “good results”.

Now they must produce great results.

INVESTMENT
Under President Kenyatta’s leadership, more Kenyan homes were connected to electricity in four years, compared to the entire preceding period from independence.

Internet penetration and speeds broke records. The economy grew. Houses were built. The country progressed.

However, Kenya still refused to play as a team. The end of the first season was particularly traumatic.

With Al-Shabaab and infiltrations, Kenya’s defences were often overstretched, placed under a great deal of pressure.

Regional droughts meant that, however strong the leadership, the country suffered.

INCLUSION

Then the election season damaged any sense of teamwork, any sense of unity, which is crucial for success.

However, we now enter a new season, a season of promise, a season where — just like Aguero and Jesus — the talented youth must play alongside the generation of experience.

The Kenya Defence Forces has tightened up its defence throughout the country.

Communication is now critical, and the coach, implementing successful devolution, uniting 47 governors, and calling for a holistic strategy of inclusion, will ensure this.

UNITY
Most importantly, however, is the overriding sense of unity. 

When a multiethnic group of talented parts come together to achieve great things, there is nothing more important than unity.

The Kamba, the Kisii, the Luhya and the Luo, from the Kalenjin to the Kikuyu, everyone must play in the spirit of the Maasai.

Play strong. Work hard. Win together.

President Kenyatta’s policies have already shown how a country can be woven together.

ELECTRICITY

From the successes of the Huduma Centres to the Madaraka Express, Kenyans are being brought closer together.

Internet penetration and cellular service across the great expanses of our beautiful country make Kenyans more connected than ever.

While electricity powered the performances of his first term, ambitious energy plans will continue to light up the country during his second term. After all, in any team, communication is key.

STRATEGY
While we look back at President Kenyatta’s good first term, let us remember Pep’s record.

Sometimes it takes a period of consolidation to produce truly great results.

The record-breaking results of Pep’s second season could not have been possible without the birth pains of his first.

So, as we prepare to embark on President Kenyatta’s second season in charge, let us remember Pep, and look forward to a truly championship winning second term.

The writer is the MP for Samburu West